Byron b



No. '770.36'8- PATENTED SEPT. 20, 1904.

- B; B. GOLDSMITH.

FINGER 1101.1) FOR PENHOLDBRS.

APPLICATION FILED FEB. 15' 1904.

H0 MODEL.

Wiliuuom: v I 3,2 GOES: Z

Patented September 20, 1904.

PATENT FFICE.

BYRON B. GOLDSMITH, OF NEW YORK, N. Y.

FINGER-HOLD FOR PENHOLDERS.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 770,363, dated September 20, 1904.

Application filed February 15, 1904. Serial No. 193,700. (No model.)

To all whom, it may concern.-

Be it known that I, BYRON B. GOLDSMITH, a citizen of the United States, residing in the city and State of New York, have invented a new and useful Improvement in Finger-Holds for Penholders, of which the following is a specification.

The object of my invention is to provide a finger-hold for penholders W hich shall be easy of construction and which will yet present an elastic and yielding mass to the finger-tips of the writer, so that the penholder may be securely grasped with little effort, an increased degree of elasticity and smoothness be given to the writing, and writers cramp be avoided.

It has heretofore been proposed with a view of attaining the objects at which I aim to construct finger-holds for penholders of cork; but these have been found unsatisfactory by reason of their comparatively unyielding character. It has also been proposed to build the finger-hold of soft rubber. N ow a finger-hold of a solid cylinder of soft rubber without any core of rigid material on the inside is impracticable, since it wabbles in writing. It has therefore been proposed to build penholders with a solid core or ferrule, which supports and prevents the wabbling of the pen, and to surround this core or ferrule with a soft-rubber finger-hold in the form of a tube. Since, however, the body of the surrounding soft-rubber tube could have no great thickness in a radial direction and since soft rubber at best is not very elastic, such soft-rubber finger-holds have been found not to present the requisite elasticity to serve the purposes desired by me. Finally, it has been proposed to make the finger-hold of a soft-rubber sheath inclosing an undivided bulk of air between the rubber sheath and the penholder; but this construction has the disadvantage that the fingers of the user displace the air from the very point at which the fingers rest, thus practically permitting the fingers to come into contact with the rigid material of the penholder with nothing but a thin sheath of rubber between them.

Now I have found that I can construct a finger-hold of soft rubber having a comparatively thin body and incasing a rigid and unyielding ferrule or core which nevertheless presents the necessary amount of elasticity and yield to the fingers of the writer. This I have accomplished in the preferred form of my invention by interposing a cylindrically arranged set of longitudinal spring-prongs between the soft-rubber sleeve or body of the finger-hold and the rigid ferrule or core, the spring-prongs being given an outward bias away from the ferrule or core, so as to leave a space between the inner surfaces of the spring-prongs and the outer surface of the ferrule. The fingers'of the writer in grasping the penholder act to compress the softrubber sleeve, which is allowed to yield inwardly against the bias of the spring-prongs, and experience has demonstrated that the reaction of a finger-hold thus constructed against the finger-tips While improving the elasticity of the writing produces that peculiar grateful feeling which is not existant with rigid fingerholds.

In the drawings, Figure l is a longitudinal cross-section of a penholder provided with my preferred form of finger-hold. Fig. 2 is a plan of the blank from which the cylindrically-arranged prongs are bent up. Fig. 3 is a crosssection of a modification of my finger-hold, and Fig. 4 is a plan of the blank used in this modification.

While my finger-hold may be applied to penholders of various constructions, I have shown in Fig. 1 to fix ideas a holder in the form of a stem A, having a tenon A, over which is slipped the rigid core or ferrule B, having fastened in the outer end thereof the usual penholder-clip B.

The blank (shown in Fig. 2) consists of a band C and a series of longitudinal prongs C. When this blank is bent upinto a cylinder, it comprises a cylindrical band C and a set of cylindrically arranged longitudinal springprongs C. These spring-prongs are given an outward bias away from the axis of the cylinder. The soft-rubber sleeve D of the finger-hold may be molded into shape and vulcanized by itself and the cylindrical body C C be thereafter inserted therein; but I prefer to mold the soft-rubber sleeve onto the cylindrical body C C and to then vulcanize the soft rubber, by which operation the spring-prongs become embedded in the rubber. 1n any case I prefer to leave an extension I) of the softrubber sleeve of the finger-hold projecting beyond the end of the spring-prongs, so as to form a tight closure with the end of the ferru e.

To assemble the parts, the clip B is secured into the outer end of the ferrule B. The softrubber sleeve D, with the spring-prongs U em bedded therein,is then slipped over the ferrule from the other end, whereupon the tenon A of the stem A is slipped into the end of the ferrule opposite that holding the clip, and the penholder is completed.

It will be noticed that the maximum outward bias of the spring-prongs C, as shown in Fig. l, is found at the end removed from the band C. While this is a very efficient arrangement,it is yet manifest that the springprongs C may be bent into various shapes to put the point of maximum bias away from the ferrule at any other point or points other than that shown in Fig. 1, or the bias of the prong away from the core may be uniform at all points of its length,- in which case the prongs would lie parallel to the outer surface of the core, but removed therefrom by an airspace.

In the construction shown in Fig. 4 there is employed a blank which when bent into cylindrical form comprises a cylindrical band at each of its opposite ends joined by a longitudinal set of spring-prongs. Upon the outside of this cylinder 1 slip a soft-rubber sleeve 1) of any desired construction, and on the inside of the cylindrical band C, I secure the penholder-clip B. The parts having been thus assembled, the tenon A may be inserted into and frictionally secured in the cylindrical band (3, and the penholder is finished.

1 claim l. A penholder finger-hold comprising a rigid core for holding the pen, a set of springprongs mounted to yield inwardly and asoftrubber sleeve surrounding the same, substantially as described.

2. A penholder finger-hold comprising a rigid core for holding the pen, a cylindricallyarranged set of longitudinal spring prongs mounted to yield inwardly and a soft-rubber sleeve surrounding the same, substantially as described.

3. A penholder finger-hold comprising a rigid core for holding the pen, a cylindrical band joined to a cylindrically-arranged set of longitudinal spring prongs'mounted to yield inwardly and a soft-rubber sleeve surrounding the same, substantially as described 4:. A penholder finger-hold comprising a rigid core for holding the pen, acylindricallyarranged set of spring-prongs having a bias away from the core, and a soft-rubber sleeve surrounding the prongs, substantially as described.

5. A penholder finger-hold comprising a rigid core, a cylindrically-arranged set of spring-prongs having a bias away from the core, and a soft-rubber sleeve having an extension surrounding and inclosing the prongs, substantially as described.

In testimony whereof I have signed my name to this specificationin the presence of two subscribing witnesses.

BYRON B. GOLDSMITH.

Witnesses:

M. TETZLOFF, F. T. CHAPMAN. 

